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I am very behind on technology and I am thinking about getting an MP3 player for music while working out. The thing is, I don't have any download program to get music, so I know that is something I need. My question is, If i go with an Mp3 player, I will have to sign up for napster right? But does napster have non-mainstream music? Like skinny-puppy/80's electronica...stuff like that? Also, how can I convert my CD's to Mp3 format? Do I need something special with my computer? Basically I'm clueless, so any help would be very much appreciated.

Quote:looner2 said:I am very behind on technology and I am thinking about getting an MP3 player for music while working out. The thing is, I don't have any download program to get music, so I know that is something I need. My question is, If i go with an Mp3 player, I will have to sign up for napster right? But does napster have non-mainstream music? Like skinny-puppy/80's electronica...stuff like that? Also, how can I convert my CD's to Mp3 format? Do I need something special with my computer? Basically I'm clueless, so any help would be very much appreciated.

There are many progams to convert from CDs to MP3 - google around a bit, I don't know what the current windows trends are... But in the past I have used mp3 strip it and generally anything that uses lame is going to do you well for the encoding.

The itunes music store has many many more and better offerings than napster does. You're more likely to find what you're looking for there.

As far as illegal music programs, well, I'll leave that as an excersize to you.

As far as the player itself... Personally, I would want one with good battery life, at least 10gigs of space, and if possible, support for more than just mp3 format. I don't own a player, though, so I can't give you any solid recommendations.

If you're using it to work out, don't go for 10 gigs of space. That means a hard drive, which is likely to run into problems if you use it while working out. Get something with flash memory.

What I have is a Rio Forge 128Mb + 1Gig secure digital memory. It is stable and tough, allows you to transfer files using UMS - ie, you don't need to install special software, like you do with most models, and wasn't that expensive - about $60 for the player and $70 for the extra memory.Sadly, it doesn't support ogg.

You are correct, Morrowind, he just didn't know what he was talking about . *normal* computer hard drives have spinning discs which can and will error if you're bouncing around with them, but portable players use solid-state hard drives (as do many laptops, if I recall correctly, but hardware isn't my thing...) which are, well, solid

(again, I'm not a hardware geek, so this is sort of past-experience + things I've picked up, if someone *is* a hardware geek, please correct me)

That isn't true. iPods have spinning hard drives and so do all the laptops I have ever seen. The hard drives are made to take a beating though unlike desktop hard drives. My iPod has been going strong for about a year and a half and I run and work out with it 5 days a week.

--------------------"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Quote:delta9 said:I know I've seen and installed laptop hard drives that were solid state

I have never seen it and I don't think it is the norm, but I am not saying it doesn't happen. I do know however that a decent sized solid state drive is extremely expensive.

--------------------"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniencies attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." - Thomas Jefferson

Alright looner, I will summarise all that is the greatness of MP3's for you.

First, you must decided on a way of obtaining said mp3's, either legally or illegally. Legally, Napster and iTunes are probably the best, but I have no experience with either of these. They also cost money. The other option is illegally. I personally use Ares and SoulSeek, but there are others like WinMX. These programs are free and will probably have any song you can think of.

As for the actual mp3 player, spend some time researching them. You'll want one with a high battery life; preferrably an internal rechargable battery otherwise you'll be spending a lot on batteries. For memory, you'll probably want around 256mb-1gb of flash memory. Any more than that and you'll have to go with a hard drive player, which are more expensive and can skip (mine does anyways). Basically 1 song in mp3 format is about 3.5 mbs, so you can calculate about how much space you'll want.

Converting CD's to mp3's is pretty easy. There are tons of programs out there that'll do it. The software that'll come with your player will probably do it. If not just google "CD ripping programs" and you'll find one.